house water pump horse power

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I have a pump house about 100 yards from my house. There is a cistern there that is filled with a spring. The pump seems to run all day long. It's labeled as a 1/3 hp pump.

It seems that it shouldn't run all day long. Should we get a stronger pump?

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), August 22, 2001

Answers

I am assuming the pump is feeding the house and not the cistern. the pump should only run when you call for water. If its running all the time, you most likley have a leak in the line to the house.

Do you have a pressure tank on the pump?

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), August 22, 2001.


We have two pressure tanks on the system. One old and one brand new. I think the bladder may be broken in the old one. I just pushed the pressure in it up from 30 psi to 50 psi and suddenly we started getting air in all our water and the pressure dropped in the old tank back down to 30 psi.

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), August 22, 2001.

Turn it down, the pump can't get there and is probably cavitating. Try 40 or 45 psi. Also check for water leaks.

-- Carter (chucky@usit.net), August 22, 2001.

We shut off all the water in the house, I shut off the pump and I watched the water pressure guage. It held at 30 psi steady. Then we ran few quarts of water out of the tap and it dropped to 29 psi. I stayed near the guage for a while and stayed the same.

I think this is a good indicator that there are no leaks.

I think the pump just cannot go above 30 psi.

So I went into town and picked up a 3/4 hp pump. I'll plug it in and see what it does.

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), August 23, 2001.


Don't know if this will help but its worth checking. I had a pump in our creek that would only build up 25 pounds of pressure. The problem was a rock stuck in the jet. I cleaned it out and it will go up to 60 pounds no problem.It is a 1/2 hp pump.

-- Bama John (jjjn@bellsouth.net), August 26, 2001.


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